Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, along with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, led an effort with 29 other state attorneys general, for smartphone makers to take steps to protect consumers.

Staff Reports

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, along with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, led an effort with 29 other state attorneys general, for smartphone makers to take steps to protect consumers.

In a letter sent today to Google/Motorola, Samsung, and Microsoft, the bipartisan group of 31 attorneys general urged the companies to develop a technological means to protect smartphone users by drying up secondary markets for stolen devices and eliminate the economic incentive for theft.

“The growing popularity of smartphones has made them valuable targets for thieves who sell them on black markets across the country and around the world,” Biden said. “I’m concerned that this thriving black market puts consumers needlessly at risk of theft and violence. That’s why my fellow Attorneys General have joined together to press the smartphone industry, which can and should do more to develop anti-theft features that reduce or eliminate the value of these devices to criminals.”

The states that joined Biden and Schneiderman in today’s letter include: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont, as well as the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico. These states join eight current S.O.S. Initiative members: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska and New York.